NATO leaders meeting in Bucharest were set to endorse a planned US missile shield for Europe, a senior US official told reporters. The final summit statement would "recognise the substantive contribution to the protection of the allies" from the missile defence system to be deployed in the Czech Republic and Poland, the official told reporters.

He said President George W. Bush confirmed to the summit that the United States will be able to move some of its troops to Afghanistan's south once France sends a battalion of troops to the east of Afghanistan, meeting Canada's conditions to keep troops in Afghanistan, the official said.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy said earlier France would send a battalion of troops to the east of Afghanistan as part of efforts to bolster the 47,000-strong peacekeeping force.